Clement: A year of hashtags that changed the world

By: Commentary December 26, 2017Comments Off on Clement: A year of hashtags that changed the world

In 2017, all it takes is a hashtag to birth a movement.

In no particular order, some of the year’s most popular hashtags that we’ve borne witness to are #MAGA, #ImpeachTrump, #NotMyPresident, #WomensMarch and #BlackLivesMatter.

Some, such as #TrumpTrain and #NODAPL, we’ve already forgotten, although to be fair, #NODAPL was so 2016.

What came and went in seemingly no time at all was #takeaknee and its angry cousin, #boycottNFL.

What we’re left with is the perennially popular #RESIST, but there’s one hashtag that promises to upstage it: #metoo. Popularized by actress Alyssa Milano, the hashtag was to encourage victims of sexual harassment to speak up as the fall of Harvey Weinstein began. Since October, #metoo has been tweeted hundreds of thousands of times, used by nearly 5 million people on Facebook and trended in nearly 90 countries.

In this time frame, we’ve watched sexual harassment scandals roil through media and entertainment, politics, academia and hospitality. Weinstein made us forget about Roger Ailes. Matt Lauer made Weinstein old news. Al Franken was forgotten once Roy Moore came on the radar. In between, there was Kevin Spacey, Garrison Keillor, Charlie Rose, Louis C.K., Mark Halperin, Stephen Bittel, Mario Batali … and scores more, and those yet to come.

Public sentiment supports Roy Moore’s loss, if not on a political level, then on a moral one. In fact, #metoo claims Moore as its first official casualty of the movement.

But the question that needs to be asked is where is the win? How is it a win when, in 2017, we’re still dealing with men who at best were raised by wolves and at worst, are nothing more than rapists at an apex of power? Is power truly to blame or are we simply failing at becoming better humans?

The names and faces that stand out in this mess are those who you see in television news because, unlike other industries, news people ask for your trust. But that’s just the beginning: One of the interesting ironies in the news business is how media demands transparency from government and business entities it covers, yet there’s little-to-no transparency when it comes to what happens inside the media itself. And broadcasters are falling much harder than their print counterparts, probably because their paychecks are much bigger.

There was a time when newspapers protected their own by not reporting incidences like DWIs in the paper, but that changed years ago. When it did, alcohol was no longer a staple in the newsroom.

Clearly, self-policing is needed, but just as clearly, the concept has largely failed. Role models and the powerful may be two mutually exclusive groups, but why aren’t the role models rewarded in our society?

This leads us to Trump. In an odd way, it seems this whole era of intolerance for sexual harassment may be traced back to the Oval Office itself. Widespread anger over the president’s lack of accountability for his actions, broadcast on Access Hollywood and leading to the dismissal of Billy Bush, seems to have resulted in a public call for correction. Perhaps there’s a secondary message here, too – which is often the case when it comes to communication: Power may be taken away when you least suspect it.

What we need to be careful of is baseless accusations taking hold. Anyone may accuse anyone of anything in a world where everything is broadcast at the click of a button. Even Sen. Chuck Schumer can testify to this, after a fake sexual harassment report about him was being shopped to the media.

But what we really need to do is learn how to listen. The women who made Time’s Person of the Year for breaking their silence did so years ago – yet no one would listen. That was when power was absolute.

That has changed, thanks, in part, to a hashtag.

Clement is CEO and executive director of the Fair Media Council, headquartered in Bethpage.